I wanted to update everyone on my adventures with my new XL. I took the advice of folks here and rather than trying to repair the tabs in the focusing cone, I purchased another body with good tabs. While I had the cone off my camera, I disassmebled the entire mechanism, then cleaned and lightly greased everything so it now focuses smooth as silk. I took the rangefinder cover off and cleaned up all of the windows and adjusted the rangefinder (the rangefinder wouldn't go to infinity even after pressing the little button). I also purchased a real 120 back for it so I don't have to keep using my kludged 70mm back with 220 film. All in all I'm pretty happy with it. My cable release broke the other day which took some time to fix, but I guess that's the price you pay when using older equipment.

Anyway, I do have a question. I currently only have the 100mm f/3.5 Zeiss Tessar for it and was wondering if there are some "must have" lenses I should look for? I was also wondering what people are using for a flash. I have the flash bracket for it and have been using a Graflite with flash bulbs, but this camera is so nice and compact (compared to my Super Speed Graphic) that I would like to find something smaller and maybe even, dare I say it, electronic.

Depending on your budget you can get some top flight (for the 60s) lenses for the XL. And since your format is down to 120 and your shutters are all X sync able, Going electronic shouldn't be all that painful.

With large format you need more power because that 135mm lens needs a lot to get down to f8 or f11.

But with the XL a 100mm lens or even the 80mm or 90mm
is much easier to shoot flash with because is a shorter lens. There were some very fast 80mm lenses that cover 6x7cm made for the XL.

All this means is that instead of a huge (expensive) pack-and-potato masher flash you should be able to get by with the lower end Sunpacks, Metz or even a 285 vivitar. These won't be as powerful as flashbulbs, but your pockets won't look like you've been hording walnuts either.
I tend to shoot wide so I like the 80mm Xenotar,Heligon or Planar would be my next lens. But you may be more into portraits of people than portraits of buildings, then I'd head for something in the 150mm range. I wouldn't get more that 3 lenses for this outfit (wide, med, long) as those mounts take up lots of space in a bag.

Thank you so much for the information. I think the next lens I'm going to add is an 80mm Planar and then keep my eye out for something longer. Your point about not getting too many lenses for the system is well taken and makes a lot of sense.

Your advice on flash equipment is also very much appreciated. I do have an old Vivitar 283 and 285 that I usually only use as slaves, but I'll give them a try on my XL.

Thank you so much for the information. I think the next lens I'm going to add is an 80mm Planar and then keep my eye out for something longer. Your point about not getting too many lenses for the system is well taken and makes a lot of sense.

Your advice on flash equipment is also very much appreciated. I do have an old Vivitar 283 and 285 that I usually only use as slaves, but I'll give them a try on my XL.

Thanks again!

Rachel

To help you think about flashes, my two 283s' measured GNs (using a Minolta flash meter) are around 85 in feet with ISO 100. In other words, they put out half as much light at full power as the manufacturer claims. Oddly, with the VP-1 unit, both give rated GN for power settings of 1/2 and less.

So think about how you intended to shoot with flash before taking Les' good advice.

On 2004-10-18 08:07, Dan Fromm wrote:
To help you think about flashes, my two 283s' measured GNs (using a Minolta flash meter) are around 85 in feet with ISO 100. In other words, they put out half as much light at full power as the manufacturer claims.

Do you mean Vivitar claims 170? Or that you're getting half of 85?

I'm tempted to suggest my Agfa 383cs but they've got a wierd auto mode and I can't find any manual mode. OTOH they're cheap and take Metz cables. I bought my first one because it came with a Metz cable that was worth more then I paid for the flash. Liked it so much that I bought a second one. Nice cheap flash for any camera that can take a Metz TTL module. But if the camera needs the flash automode I'd think twice.

The Metz 45 is a little more powerfull [45 metres versus 38 for the Agfa] but it's bigger and heavier. Costs more. But it's got a manual mode and a better auto mode.

On 2004-10-18 08:07, Dan Fromm wrote:
To help you think about flashes, my two 283s' measured GNs (using a Minolta flash meter) are around 85 in feet with ISO 100. In other words, they put out half as much light at full power as the manufacturer claims.

Do you mean Vivitar claims 170? Or that you're getting half of 85?

I'm tempted to suggest my Agfa 383cs but they've got a wierd auto mode and I can't find any manual mode. OTOH they're cheap and take Metz cables. I bought my first one because it came with a Metz cable that was worth more then I paid for the flash. Liked it so much that I bought a second one. Nice cheap flash for any camera that can take a Metz TTL module. But if the camera needs the flash automode I'd think twice.

The Metz 45 is a little more powerfull [45 metres versus 38 for the Agfa] but it's bigger and heavier. Costs more. But it's got a manual mode and a better auto mode.

Nick, Vivitar claims 120. 85 is about one stop down. Do the GN arithmetic and you'll see.

Got it. Some companies are making claims based on the zoomed power of the flash. If you measure with the flash at a wide setting you'll get a lower number. Don't know if your flash is one of those. Mine are all so old they don't support anything like that.

On 2004-10-18 13:44, Nick wrote:
Got it. Some companies are making claims based on the zoomed power of the flash. If you measure with the flash at a wide setting you'll get a lower number. Don't know if your flash is one of those. Mine are all so old they don't support anything like that.

The 283 doesn't zoom. Fool that I am, I bought the fresnel attachment. My flashmeter says it does nothing useful but narrow (not focus) the beam. Oh, well.

Thanks for input on the Vivitar flash units. I spent some time measuring the guide numbers of my various flash units and was pretty surprised. I tested four of my Vivitar 283's, my Metz 45 CL-4, my Nikon SB-28 and SB-80DX and my Lumedyne's at 400 and 800 w/s. My Vivitar's ranged from a low of 52.8' up to 89', with the other two at 80' and 83'. Clearly the one at 52.8' is ready for a new capacitor or the trash can. The Nikon's were the closest to what I expected and, of course, the Lumedyne's were the most powerful with a GN of 270' at 800 w/s.

The 58 Grandagon is astounding (remounted it covers 4X5 with only modest corner darkening at infinity, none at middle distances).

Noritars were great for general photography, very sharp, but I recall hearing (gossip, not fact) that they were not so good for portraits because of unusually high contrast (maybe good candidates for Hassleblad Softars?).